Advanced monitoring for wind and photovoltaics at PPC Romania

PPC Renewables Romania, the company that deals with the production of energy from renewable sources within the PPC Group, inaugurated yesterday a control room through which it monitors and manages all the company's local renewable energy production plants, both wind and photovoltaic. The control center is serviced 24 hours a day, with each shift - of the three daily - consisting of two people who supervise production for eight hours and respond to the requests of the National Energy Dispatcher. According to company representatives, this is the largest control room of its kind in our country, being necessary in view of the doubling of PPC Romania's production capacity from renewable sources, a capacity that has reached 1.3 Gigawatts and is set to reach 2 Gigawatts next year.

Alessio Menegazzo, CEO & Country Manager PPC Romania, stated, at the inauguration of the new command center: "Even if it seems like we are in a room with simple screens, this command center is very important for us, an investment that is part of the 3 billion euros we have invested in Romania in the last year, since we acquired the assets here, an investment that is included in our plan for the development of energy capacities. We want this investment process to be smooth, smart, in line with the energy transition and as friendly as possible to consumers, whether households or industrial. Because that is what it is about: these investments are made to increase Romania's energy competitiveness. Our energy power from renewable sources has grown rapidly; at the moment the total capacity is 1.3 Gigawatts, we will soon reach 1.5 Gigawatts and for the end of 2026 we aim to reach 2 Gigawatts and maybe even exceed this milestone. This development also implies the increasing importance of digitalization in our company, both in terms of production monitoring and dispatching. (...) 10-15 years ago, this situation would have been a typical situation of a transmission operator or an operator with very high generation capacity. The trend is that it will be smaller and smaller, more diffuse, more flexible, as close as possible to the final consumer. This is what the energy transition and the Green Deal are about. The consumer has an increasingly important place in the energy transition and in the energy system. All regulations, all legislative changes, all investments must have a purpose and an end goal: the final consumer must be a beneficiary of the energy transition and the Green Deal. Otherwise, we have collectively failed: and the institutions, be they regulatory, be they political, be they governmental, be they large or small private players. If there is no shared vision and a roadmap that is agreed upon by everyone, we will fail. I don't think anyone wants to fail."

Adrian Dugulan, CEO of PPC Renewables Romania, said: "This control room is a natural step in what represents sustainable growth for a renewable energy company. In recent years, we have doubled our generation capacity, reaching 1.3 GW installed, we have projects under construction and I hope to reach 2 GW in 2026. Through acquisitions, we have managed to expand our portfolio and today we manage wind, solar and hydro capacities, which makes the complexity of managing these capacities increasingly greater. Here, in the control room, is where both the technical side - through the permanent connection that we must have with the National Energy Dispatcher, through the way in which we contribute to the reliability of the system - and the commercial side - through the information that we can provide to the energy market and to our customers who enjoy bidding in the energy market - meet. I think it is important to mention the human component, through which this control center supervises the works in the stations, in the power plants, the maneuvers that are made, the operation of the parks, so that we ensure the necessary protection at work for all our colleagues in the country".

"The new state-of-the-art control center that we are inaugurating in Romania represents a reference moment for the management of the largest renewable energy portfolio in South-Eastern Europe. The control center reflects our commitment to modern technological infrastructure and is a key factor in a major program to transform renewable energy production, based on the three main pillars: digitalization, decarbonization and decentralized production", added Angelos Kasimis, General Manager RES Operations, PPC Renewables.

The control room capabilities have been audited and PPC Renewables Romania dispatchers have been authorized by the national operator of the electricity system. Thus, the company's production units will be able to respond quickly to orders received from the territorial energy dispatchers or from the central one, fulfilling the obligations established by the Network Code.

The respective command center is proof that the energy transition is truly taking place in Romania and that this transition cannot go well without digitalization, said Lorant Antal, president of the Senate Energy Committee.

Lorant Antal continued: "Digitalization is an essential process in the energy transition. Unfortunately, in the last three years we have been facing a decreasing trend in consumption in terms of industrial consumers, and this decrease means that there is a problem in the national economy. We have made a map of energy consumption in Romania, it is called EnergyMap.ro, and I invite you to look at that data".

The president of the Senate Energy Committee mentioned that an important element of the energy transition is investments in distribution networks, especially since the electrification of the economy cannot be achieved without these networks. Lorant Antal specified that the Parliament will establish together with ANRE the investment scheme for the coming years in the energy sector and that the respective investments will cover the period 2025-2030.